Create: an intensity map with custom boundaries

This tutorial uses the New look in Fusion Tables.
The same features are offered in Classic, too.

The Visualize > Intensity map function in Classic offers a simple way to visualize data at a country level for a global view and continent view. But what if you'd like an intensity map with other boundaries? Or more control over the colors? or info windows?

This tutorial shows you an example of creating a highly-customizable intensity map with any boundaries.

Boundaries can be found in our Resource data section, in Google Tables search, or from official sources and imported to Fusion Tables. (See importing KML and shape files.) Here we step through combining boundaries for the United States 110th Congressional Districts with U. S. Census data to make a custom intensity map.

For example, this map is colored to display the prevalence of using natural gas to heat the home:

In this tutorial

One table has interesting statistics about the 110th Congressional Districts, and another table has their geographic boundaries for showing them on a map. You'll start by combining the two public tables into a new, merged table you own. Then select the Map visualization, and customize your map with a color display based on the data. Finally, choose how to share your map.

Combine the two tables into a new table

Now that you've got the two tables available, you can merge them into one single table:

Open the Home Heating statistics table if it isn't open already.

Click File > Merge. (If inactive, sign in first.)

Copy the URL of the Congressional boundaries table.

Paste it in the "Or paste a web address here" box and click Next.

Specify the column that both tables have in common:

On the left, select "Two-digit District"

On the right, "id" is already selected.

Click Next, then Merge.

Take a moment to look at your new table.

The column headers from different source tables have different background colors.

Click the table name to edit it to something simpler (e.g. "Heating statistics by congressional district, 2008")

Both sources are attributed in the table header.

Under File > About this table, the lineage of the data in the merged table is available in greater detail.

The new combined table is not a copy: if the underlying data is changed, the merged table shows the changes too. Thus if the data owner finds an error and corrects the original data in Fusion Tables, the correction propagates.

Share and publish the map

You can only share tables that are public or unlisted, so you need to adjust the visibility settings on your new table. Once you've done that, you can embed the map you've created in a website or send a link around. Learn about options for publishing data in the new look tutorials.